BBC goes wobbly on terrorists
BENNINGTON, VT The hydra head of Islamic jihadi terrorism has struck again this time in London. The British capital was jolted by terrible attacks which echoed those earlier in New York, Washington DC, and Madrid.
True to form Londoners exhibited a tough and stoic stiff upper lip, the same of which sustained them through the Blitz in 1940 and the IRA bombings of the 1980s. But contrary to form, the venerable British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has in the words of the English gone wobbly (wimp) in the face of calling the terrorism what it is.
Showing a massive dose of misplaced political correctness, the BBC has issued an edict from the chief of its News Division, not to call the perpetrators of the subway and bus bombings what they are terrorists. According to the Daily Telegraph, this appalling
logic, if that is a proper term, is to avoid carrying emotional and value judgments.
Thus while the violent act is clearly described as terrorism, the suspects in this case being four British-born men of Pakistani extraction are described as suicide bombers or bombers which somehow sounds more antiseptic than terrorists. Editorial staff are outraged by this political call.
First off full disclosure Im a longtime listener to the BBC radio World service (25 years plus) which still remains near gold standard in news reporting. I also confess to watching BBC TV America which is immeasurably better than CNN. So I speak as a friend of Bush House where the BBC is based in London.
My disagreement with this editorial policy is thus not just polemic or tainted by Anglophobia rather its a sad realization that Great Britain who endured a decade of very focused and dangerous IRA terrorism (at least the IRA had the morbid courtesy to usually call just before the bomb) cannot come to grips with this European-wide infection of fundamentalist violence.
The heinous 7 July bombs stabbed at the very heart of multicultural London look at the victims including many Moslems and tell me this was not a rash, indiscriminate and wanton act aimed to spread fear and recrimination. Thats TERROR! This is not an issue of a misunderstanding or a political disagreement but of a carefully planned and willfully executed act whose primary aim is to cause carnage.
Those Al Qaida Jihadi foot soldiers in this case the British-born Pakistani men and Im certain many others knew what they were doing and probably were seduced by the cult of violence much as they were motivated by a hate for their own country.
Religion, in this case the fundamentalist Islam, was the elixir which caused 54 dead and 700 wounded. Yes it has besmirched and dishonored the name of very many decent hardworking Muslims working in the United Kingdom, but that does not deny that the bombers were militant Muslims much as most IRA terrorists were apostate Catholics.
So what to call these misguided chaps who just happened to blow up innocent civilians on subway trains and a double-decker bus? They certainly seem beyond football hooligans, but ess than terrorists? Sanitizing the description somehow cheapens the crime, dishonors the victims, and emboldens the perpetuators. The appellation terrorist for the London bombers of July 7th or of September 11th for that matter, seems less of an editorial opinion than a cold-blooded fact.
Sadly the terrorists are those who despite the religious and political tolerance of Britain and Europe wish to bring their neo-Taliban totalitarianism to the streets of Western capitals and the USA.
Now the BBC certainly has good reason not to radicalize and burn bridges to the decent Muslims in Britain. Fine. Yet which decent Muslim would want to be identified with a barbarous act which besmirched the name of Islam and murdered his fellow Muslims? Coming to think of it, the same should apply to Iraqi terrorists who killed 26 fellow Muslim children this week in Baghdad.
But the suspects and many more in the shadows in Britain are well beyond being bad guys. Hurting their feelings is the last thing we should worry about. The BBC in its pursuit of editorial accuracy should simply call them what they are Terrorists.
John J. Metzler is a U.N. correspondent covering diplomatic and defense
issues. He writes weekly for World Tribune.com.  |
